Jacob the Liar

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Literary

Jurek Becker

Jacob the Liar / Jakob der Lügner

By chance Jacob Heym has learned that the Red Army is only a few hundred kilometers away. And now he has told all the others who are locked into the Ghetto of a Polish city with him and who have lost almost all hope. So that the others believe him, Jacob says that he is in possession of a radio. Now they all come to him for the latest news and a little bit of encouragement, the strength to resist a little while longer in a world in which the Germans are systematically exterminating the Jews. And so he becomes Jacob the Liar: he lies in order to give people hope again and the strength to go on.

Jacob the Liar was first published in 1969. Since then Jurek Becker’s extraordinary debut novel has been translated into over twenty languages and belongs to the canon of not only German but world literature. Louis Begley, who like Jurek Becker was a Jewish child in German-occupied Poland, has provided an afterword for this new edition.

»A mischievous book about humanity in terrible times and about the power of storytelling. How deftly he addresses such heavy questions: What is right and what is wrong?« Susanne Kippenberger, Der Tagesspiegel

2007, 301 pages

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Literary

DISCOVER

Nachricht

Spotlight on Authors from the Former East on German Unity Day

On German Unity Day, we’ve put together a collection of works by writers who were born or worked in East Germany.

Nachricht

Spotlight on Authors from the Former East on German Unity Day

On German Unity Day, we’ve put together a collection of works by writers who were born or worked in East Germany.

DISCOVER

Nachricht

Spotlight on Authors from the Former East on German Unity Day

On German Unity Day, we’ve put together a collection of works by writers who were born or worked in East Germany.

Jurek Becker

Author

Jurek Becker was born on September 30, 1937 in Łódź, Poland, and died on March 14, 1997 in Sieseby/Schleswig-Holstein. From 1939 to 1945 Becker grew up in the Łódź Ghetto and was later imprisoned in the concentration camps of Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen. In 1945 he moved to East Berlin where he studied Philosophy at Humboldt University from 1957 to 1960. In 1960 Becker was barred from studying further for political reasons and thus transferred to film school in Babelsberg. Becker is the author of numerous screenplays. His first novel Jacob the Liar was published in 1969 and became known throughout the world. Jurek Becker’s work was awarded numerous prizes, including the Grimme Prize and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Jurek Becker

Author

Jurek Becker was born on September 30, 1937 in Łódź, Poland, and died on March 14, 1997 in Sieseby/Schleswig-Holstein. From 1939 to 1945...

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

On the beach at Bochum there’s a lot going on

Year of Publication: 2018

Jurek BeckerYear of Publication: 2018

On the beach at Bochum there’s a lot going on

Over the course of his life as a writer Jurek Becker has explored many genres. He wrote texts for the cabaret, authored movie scripts, garnered international acclaim with his debut novel Jacob the Liar, published short stories and essays. In his estate drafts were found for most of his works. Among these, drafts for postcards were discovered as well, in which he used the same conceptual...

Year of Publication: 1994

Jurek BeckerYear of Publication: 1994

Amanda Heartless

»Amanda Heartless is simultaneously a love-story, a portrait of the age, a coming of age novel, and a satire of literature in which the decline of a much maligned state is mirrored in the...

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Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Tusquets), Russia (Azbooka), France (Grasset), Italy (Feltrinelli), Sweden (Norstedts), Denmark (Gyldendal), Poland (Polnord Wydawnictwo), Slovenia (Hermagoras), Turkey (Ayrinti)

Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (DAV)